Early production of table olives at a mid-7th millennium BP submerged site off the Carmel coast (Israel).

ABSTRACT: We present here the earliest evidence for large-scale table olive production from the mid-7^th millennium BP inundated site of Hishuley Carmel on the northern Mediterranean coast of Israel. Olive pit size and fragmentation patterns, pollen as well as the architecture of installations associated with pits from this site, were compared to finds from the nearby and slightly earlier submerged Kfar Samir site. Results indicate that at Kfar Samir olive oil was extracted, while at Hishuley Carmel the data showed that large quantities of table olives, the oldest reported to date, were prepared. This process was most probably facilitated by the site's proximity to the Mediterranean Sea, which served as a source of both sea water and salt required for debittering/pickling/salting the fruit

SUBMITTER: Galili E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7838305 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature